Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny is an animated cartoon character, best known for his starring roles in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of theatrical short films produced by Warner Bros. during the Golden Age of American Animation. His popularity during this era led to his becoming an American cultural icon, as well as a corporate mascot of the Warner Bros. company. Appearance Bugs is an anthropomorphic gray hare, famous for his relaxed, passive personality, pronounced Mid-Atlantic accent (Mel Blanc, Bugs' original voice actor, described the voice as being a mixture of Brooklyn and Bronx accents), depiction as a mischievous trickster, and his catchphrase "Eh, what's up, doc?" (usually said while chewing a carrot). Bugs has appeared in more films (both short and feature-length) than any other cartoon character, has his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and is the 9th most-portrayed film personality in the world. Personality He is a cunning, charismatic, and smart rabbit. These personality traits are what gives him an advantage over his enemies, rivals, and opponents. He is also known for his famous catchphrase; "Eh, what's up, doc?", which he typically uses as a greeting to anyone he encounters (usually while munching a carrot). Bugs is characterized as being clever and capable of outsmarting anyone who antagonizes him, including Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Willoughby, Marvin The Martian, Beaky Buzzard, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, the Tasmanian Devil, Cecil Turtle, Witch Hazel, Rocky and Mugsy, Wile E. Coyote, The Crusher, The Gremlin, Count Bloodcount, and a whole bunch of others. Bugs almost always wins out on these contentions, a story pattern which recurs in Looney Tunes cartoons directed by Chuck Jones. Concerned that viewers would lose sympathy for an aggressive protagonist who always won, Chuck arranged for Bugs to be bullied, cheated, or threatened by the antagonists while minding his own business, justifying his subsequent antics as retaliation or self-defense. He's also been known to break The 4th Wall by "communicating" with the audience, either by explaining the situation (e.g. "Be with you in a minute, folks!"), describing someone to the audience (e.g. "Feisty, ain't they?"), clueing in on the story (e.g. "That happens to him all during the picture, folks."), explaining that one of his antagonists' actions have pushed him to the breaking point ("Of course you know, this means war."), admitting his own deviousness toward his antagonists ("Gee, ain't I a stinker?"), etc. When Bugs made his appearance, he promptly replaced Daffy Duck as the most popular Warner Bros. character. Daffy, jealous of his cartoon counterpart's ascension to fame, has on many occasions attempted to dethrone the rabbit. But he has never truly succeeded, always being outsmarted by the clever hare. However, as time passed on, Bugs and Daffy's rivalry has turned friendlier in nature as the two usually hang out together in most cartoons and Bugs considers Daffy his best friend despite his faults, to which Daffy says the same thing. History A Wild Hare, directed by Tex Avery and released on July 27, 1940, is widely considered to be the first official Bugs Bunny cartoon. It is the first short where both Elmer Fudd and Bugs are shown in their fully developed forms as hunter and tormentor, respectively; the first in which Mel Blanc used what would become Bugs' standard voice; and the first in which Bugs says his catchphrase, "What's Up Doc?" The short was a huge success in theaters and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short Film. Immediately following on A Wild Hare, Bob Clampett's Patient Porky featured a cameo appearance by Bugs, announcing to the audience that 750 rabbits have been born. The gag uses Bugs' Wild Hare visual design, but his goofier pre-Wild Hare voice characterization. The second full-fledged role for the mature Bugs, Chuck Jones' Elmer's Pet Rabbit, was the first to use the name Bugs Bunny on-screen: it appears in a title card, "featuring Bugs Bunny," at the start of the short (which was edited in following the success of A Wild Hare). However, Bugs' voice in this cartoon is significantly different, and his design was slightly altered as well. After Pet Rabbit, however, subsequent Bugs appearances returned to normal: the Wild Hare visual design returned, and Mel reused the Wild Hare voice characterization. The name "Bugs" or "Bugsy" as an old-fashioned nickname means "crazy" (or "loopy"). Several famous people from the first half of the twentieth century had that nickname, like the famous gangster, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, who disliked the nickname. It is now out of fashion as a nickname, but survives in the 1950's–1960's expressions like "you're bugging me", as in "you're driving me crazy". It was the nickname of the aforementioned Ben Hardaway and notes that referred to this "Bugs' bunny" stuck. Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt, directed by Friz Freleng, became the second Bugs Bunny cartoon to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short Film. The fact that it didn't win the award was later spoofed somewhat in What's Cookin' Doc?, in which Bugs demands a recount after losing the Oscar to Jimmy Cagney and presents a clip from Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt to prove his point. By 1942, Bugs had become the #1 star of Merrie Melodies. The series had originally been intended only for one-shot characters in shorts after several early attempts to introduce characters (Foxy, Goopy Geer, and Piggy) failed under Harman–Ising (by 1937, under Leon Schlesinger, it had started introducing newer characters). Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid featured a slight redesign of Bugs, with less-prominent front teeth and a rounder head. The character was reworked by Robert McKimson, then an animator in Bob Clampett's unit. The redesign at first was only used in the shorts created by Bob's unit, but in time it would be taken up by the other directors, with Friz Freleng and Frank Tashlin the first. When Robert was himself promoted to director, he created yet another version, with more slanted eyes, longer teeth, and a much larger mouth. He used this version until 1949 (as did Arthur Davis for the one Bugs Bunny cartoon he directed) when he started using the version he had designed for Bob. Chuck Jones would come up with his own slight modification, and the voice had slight variations between the units. Bugs also made cameos in Tex Avery's final WB short, Crazy Cruise. Since Bugs' debut in A Wild Hare, he had appeared only in color Merrie Melodie cartoons (making him one of the few recurring characters created for that series in the Leon Schlesinger era prior to the full conversion to color), alongside Elmer predecessor Egghead, Inki, Sniffles, and Elmer himself. While he made a cameo appearance in the Porky and Daffy cartoon Porky Pig's Feat, this was his only appearance in a black-and-white Looney Tunes short. He did not star in a Looney Tunes cartoon until that series made its complete conversion to only color cartoons beginning in 1944. Buckaroo Bugs was Bugs' first starring role in a Looney Tunes short and was also the last WB cartoon to credit Leon (as he had retired and sold his studio to Warner Bros. that year). Bugs' popularity soared during World War II because of his free and easy attitude and began receiving special star billing in his cartoons by 1943. By that time, Warner Bros. had become the most profitable cartoon studio in the U.S. In company with cartoon studios such as Disney and Famous Studios, WB put its characters against Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and the Japanese. Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips featured Bugs at odds with a group of Japanese soldiers. This cartoon has since been pulled from distribution due to its racism towards Japanese people. Bugs also faced off against Hermann Göring and Hitler in Herr Meets Hare, which introduced his well-known reference to Albuquerque as he mistakenly winds up in the Black Forest of "Joimany" instead of Las Vegas, Nevada. Bugs also appeared in the 1942 two-minute U.S. war bonds commercial film Any Bonds Today?, along with Porky and Elmer. At the end of Super-Rabbit, Bugs appears wearing a United States Marine Corps dress blue uniform. As a result, the Marine Corps made Bugs an honorary Marine Master Sergeant. From 1943 to 1946, Bugs was the official mascot of Kingman Army Airfield, Kingman, Arizona, where thousands of aerial gunners were trained during World War II. Some notable trainees included Clark Gable and Charles Bronson. Bugs also served as the mascot for 530 Squadron of the 380th Bombardment Group, 5th Air Force, U.S. Air Force, which was attached to the Royal Australian Air Force and operated out of Australia's Northern Territory from 1943 to 1945, flying B-24 Liberator bombers. Bugs riding an air delivered torpedo served as the squadron logo for Marine Torpedo/Bomber Squadron 242 in the Second World War. In 1944, Bugs Bunny made a cameo appearance in Jasper Goes Hunting, a Puppetoons short produced by rival studio Paramount Pictures. In this cameo (animated by Robert McKimson, with Mel providing the voice), Bugs (after being threatened at gunpoint) pops out of a rabbit hole, saying his usual catchphrase; after hearing the orchestra play the wrong theme song, he realizes "Hey, I'm in the wrong picture!" and then goes back in the hole. After World War II, Bugs continued to appear in numerous Warner Bros. cartoons, making his last "Golden Age" appearance in 1964's False Hare. He starred in over 167 theatrical shorts, most of which were directed by Friz Freleng, Robert McKimson, and Chuck Jones. Friz' Knighty Knight Bugs, in which a medieval Bugs trades blows with Yosemite Sam and his fire-breathing dragon (which has a cold), won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film (becoming the first Bugs Bunny cartoon to win the said award). Three of Chuck's shorts — Rabbit Fire, Rabbit Seasoning, and Duck! Rabbit, Duck! — compose what is often referred to as the "Rabbit Season/Duck Season" trilogy and are famous for originating the "historic" rivalry between Bugs and Daffy Duck. Chuck's classic What's Opera, Doc?, casts Bugs and Elmer Fudd in a parody of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. It was deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 1992, becoming the first cartoon short to receive this honor. In the fall of 1960, ABC debuted the prime-time television program The Bugs Bunny Show. This show packaged many of the post-1948 Looney Tunes shorts with newly animated wraparounds. After two seasons, it was moved from its evening slot to reruns on Saturday mornings. The Bugs Bunny Show changed the format and exact title frequently but remained on network television for 40 years. The packaging was later completely different, with each short simply presented on its own, title and all, though some clips from the new bridging material were sometimes used as filler. Bugs did not appear in any of the post-1964 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises or Seven Arts Productions, nor did he appear in the lone Looney Tunes TV special produced by Filmation Associates. He would not appear in new material on-screen again until Bugs and Daffy's Carnival of the Animals aired in 1976. From the late 1970s through the 1980s, Bugs was featured in various animated specials for network television, such as Bugs Bunny's Howl-o-ween Special, Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales and Bugs Bunny's Bustin' Out All Over. Bugs also starred in the independently-produced documentary Bugs Bunny: Superstar during this time, as well as Warner Bros.' various compilation films; The Bugs Bunny Road-Runner Movie, The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie, Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales and Daffy Duck's Quackbusters. In the 1988 live-action/animated movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (from executive producer Steven Spielberg), Bugs appeared as one of the inhabitants of Toontown. However, since the film was being produced by Disney, Warner Bros. would only allow the use of their biggest star if he got an equal amount of screen time as Disney's biggest star, Mickey Mouse. Because of this, both characters are always together in the frame when onscreen. Roger Rabbit also featured one of Mel Blanc's final performances as the voice of Bugs (as well as the other Looney Tunes characters) before his death in 1989. Bugs later appeared in another animated production featuring numerous characters from rival studios; the 1990 drug prevention TV special Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue. This special is notable for being the first time that someone other than Mel voiced Bugs and Daffy (both characters were voiced by Jeff Bergman for this). Bugs also made guest appearances in the early 1990s television series Tiny Toon Adventures (also from Steven Spielberg), as the principal of Acme Looniversity and the mentor of Buster Bunny. He made further cameos in Warner Bros.' subsequent animated TV shows Taz-Mania, Animaniacs, and Histeria! Bugs returned to the silver screen in 1990's Box Office Bunny. This was the first Bugs Bunny cartoon since 1964 to be released in theaters and it was created for Bugs' 50th-anniversary celebration. It was followed by Blooper Bunny, a cartoon that was shelved from theaters, but later premiered on Cartoon Network in 1997 and has since gained a cult following among animation fans for its edgy humor. In 1996, Bugs and the other Looney Tunes characters appeared in the live-action/animated movie, Space Jam, directed by Joe Pytka and starring Michael Jordan. The film also introduced the character Lola Bunny, who becomes Bugs' new love interest. The movie received mixed reviews from critics but was a box office success (grossing over $230 million worldwide). The success of Space Jam led to the development of another live-action/animated movie, Looney Tunes: Back In Action, released in 2003 and directed by Joe Dante. Unlike Space Jam, Back In Action was a box-office bomb, though it did receive more positive reviews from critics. A younger version of Bugs, voiced by Samuel Vincent, is the main character of Baby Looney Tunes, which debuted on Cartoon Network in 2002. In the Action-Adventure series Loonatics Unleashed, his definite descendant Ace Bunny is the leader of the Loonatics team and seems to have inherited his ancestor's Mid-Atlantic accent and comedic wit. In 2011, Bugs Bunny and the rest of the Looney Tunes gang returned to television in the Cartoon Network sitcom, The Looney Tunes Show, with Jeff Bergman returning to voice both Bugs and Daffy Duck for the first time since 1992's Invasion Of The Bunny Snatchers. The characters feature new designs by artist Jessica Borutski. Among the changes to Bugs' appearance were the simplification and enlargement of his feet, as well as a change to his fur from gray to a shade of mauve (though in the second season, his fur was changed back to gray). In the series, Bugs and Daffy are portrayed as best friends as opposed to their usual pairing as rivals or frenemies. At the same time, Bugs is more openly annoyed at Daffy's antics in the series (sometimes to the point of aggression), compared to his usual carefree personality from the original cartoons. Bugs and Daffy are close friends with Porky Pig in the series, although Bugs tends to be a more reliable friend to Porky than Daffy is. Bugs is also seen dating Lola Bunny in the show, although at first, he finds her to be "crazy" and a bit too talkative (he later learns to accept her personality quirks, similar to his tolerance for Daffy). Unlike the original cartoons, Bugs lives in an upper-middle-class house, which he shares with Daffy, Taz (whom he treats as a pet dog) and Speedy Gonzales, in the middle of a cul-de-sac with their neighbors Yosemite Sam, Granny and Witch Lezah. According to the episode "Peel of Fortune," Bugs' financial success comes from his invention of the carrot peeler. 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